Today, New York City released new guidelines designed to protect transgender and gender non-conforming people from being barred from using the restroom that correspondent with their gender identity.
Mayor Bill de Blasio stated that the new guidelines are designed to ensure that “every transgender and gender non-conforming person in New York receives the dignity and respect they deserve.” It additionally states that having a dress code requiring women to wear skirts and men to wear ties or any similar gendered grooming requirements is discriminatory. Workplaces are advised that “refusal to use a transgender employee’s preferred name, pronoun, or title may constitute unlawful gender-based harassment.”
These new guidelines go beyond current federal discrimination laws.
Three-quarters of transgender New Yorkers have reported being treated poorly at their workplaces. These new regulations by de Blasio are sure to be a major help in preventing such negative behavior towards transgender people in the workplace in the future.
This is certainly a huge step for transgender and gender non-conforming New York City residents. However, Corey Johnson, facilitator of the City Council’s LGBT Caucus, notes that “the fight for equality is not over.”
But we’re make some serious progress towards it.
